my messy oscars help !

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I have Silver Dollars to get the food that comes out of my Oscars gills and Pim Pictus cats to get what they miss, as for the poop unless you are willing to go bare bottom there isn't much you can do apart from syphon it out.
 
I have the same problem with my Tex and GT especially when they stuff there mouths with massivore and spit it out later because they can't swallow all of it at once.

Luckily i also have four silver dollars in the tank that loves the small pieces and since i installed a nice pig power head in the in the opposite corner of the the tank to where the sump's intake is(if that makes sense) i have noticed that there is allot less pieces floating around in the water colum.

I doubt you will be able to introduce new Silver Dollars to you Oscar tank so maybe try a power head.
 
Well I have a way over stock 180gallon that runs 2 FX5'S and I do 50% water changes but I also run a power head. That helps me because not much sits on the ground and the pumps pick it up. But I will agree the rocks cover most of the food and poop cause it get's burried in the rocks. I have most of my other tanks that run sand and I'm please with it cause when I do W/C it's right there to be pickup. Hope it helps.
 
I also keep oscars. they're always messy, and the sand that you have doesn't help hideit. I would switch to gravel so you can actually vacuum out the waste, with sand its very diificult, and if you use some gravel(brown, black) you wont really see the waste as badly.

I know sand is awesome, I have a few tanks with sand as substrate, however with oscars this problem is hard to avoid.
 
No, no. If clean is what you want, don't try to trap the poo and leave it in your tank. Bare-bottom is absolutely the best solution to gluttonous fish messes. Every poo will pile up in one nice mound and you can scoop it out with a net as often as you like. I have an Oscar, five sunfish and an L200 in my 125g. I net out the poo about twice a week, besides w/c day. If that amount of food were sucked into a filter to rot or hidden in the gravel, my nitrates would go through the roof. Bare-bottom. Chuck those rocks out the window and don't look back.

This is just what they crapped out overnight.

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You can see the rocks it is next to on the right. Might seem like a small quantity, but it may as well be another fish in the tank.
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flipstylex;4087812; said:
thinkin about powerheads. wouldnt it blow the sand around ?

what kind of powerheads do you guys use, anyone use koralai 's ?
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Unfortunately it does but with a bit of playing around you will find an angle that disturbs the least amount of sand and every water change you can just smooth out the sand like you want it.
With all the cichlids in my tank the wave maker is the least of my worries when it comes to moving sand.

I use a Hydor Koralia and it doesn't have a constant "blow" in one direction it has more a sort of "wave" that it blows out.

That is probably why its called a wave maker lol. :screwy:
 
icic. but i dont know if i want to go the barebottom route. i WAS THINKin if the powerheads or sumtin like koralai can trap the poop in one side of the tank and so i can just scoop it up. your right, i dont want my canister to pick up the poop. i just dont want the poop in the middle of the tank, i just rather have it in one corner piled up so i can scoop....
 
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